Monday, November 29, 2010

Show us your tropicals and exotics, your hot Mediterranean colors and wild combinations, amazing discoveries and unusual variations. Or how about something exciting you just saw, a crazy garden, amazing garden art or design, an inspiring visit or hike?

This meme is open to all (you do not have to live in an exotic location to participate) and will be on the last day of each month…so mark your calendars and lets do something fun on the hot, the loud and the proud meme. I’ll have the link available early, east coast time (USA) to catch you early birds and even earlier for those of you in other countries.

Its hard to believe that we are at the start of December and celebrating another hot meme. This month, I’m visiting one of the most popular orchid nurseries on the Big Island called Akatsuka Orchid Gardens up in Volcano with over 200,000 orchids growing in their specialty nursery. At Akatsukas, they specialize in Cattleyas and other hybrid orchids including orchids with scented blooms. A typical hybridized orchid takes up to 5 years to mature from a a tissue cutting to full bloom.

On my way around the display gardens, I found quite a few worth sniffing and admiring some of the more exotic hybrids that they are growing here.

As I mentioned, they are specialty growers of cattleyas especially the scented variety and this first one had a faint whiff of a plumeria. The vivid purple hues are enough to attract any attention, but the added scent makes you want to stop and enjoy the blooms for a longer time frame.

This black lady slipper/ paphiopedilum caught my eye right away, its striped black on black with dark purple petals are very bold and truly make a statement to any orchids in the display garden. The bottom photo shows the flower starting to come out, it looks more like an alien warship about to take off.

This newer hybrid, I could not even locate a label for so I’m assuming it is not yet named. I haven’t seen this type of orchid with frilly petals and a white green color combination. It is absolutely stunning.

A few more exotic paphiopedilums ordhids on display.

Hope you enjoyed the tour, if you can’t visit this in person, they have a wonderful website to check out what’s happening at http://www.akatsukaorchid.com/

To see other posts to the Hot, the Loud and the Proud please click any of the links below and enjoy your visit.

Aloha Noel, i opened your site last night and realized you are late by one day there, haha! Those Paphiopedillum hybrids are really very very beautiful. I love this lady slippers but cannot successfully raise here in the dry tropics, maybe i need to create a mini-humid environment first before trying to raise some of them. I love the black one. By the way Noel, have you seen the new anthurium hybrid just released? It was in your papers. My friend at the UH Manoa is a breeder of anthuriums.

The frilly orchid looks more like a particular species that belongs to the Cattleya family: Rhycholaelia digbyana. People have tried to breed the fancy lip into other Cattleya hybrids with very little success

Hi Noel, my first visit here. I wasn't sure what link to include in my post so I just put your regular blog url in. I have been visiting our local conservatory and enjoying the tropicals so much. I've posted some anthuriums for this meme:

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Aloha

Living in East Hawaii on the Big Island, I am amazed by the multitude of new plant genera that I've started to discover and become addicted to. Come and explore with me in finding new amazing plants, discover the variegated and colorful, rare specimens, developing my garden, garden design, learning about sustainability and just doing the naughty things that a plant fanatic typically won't do in public :)

About Me

Writer, photographer, artist, food fanatic and wanderer,I love to visit and discover new places, exotic food and interesting people along my travels. Being able to explore new environments, cultures and trying something new is something I am passionate about, and sharing my photography and writing is a big part of the joy and creative process.
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